“The Other Side of Home”

“The Other Side of Home” follows the journey of an Armenian filmmaker and a Turkish woman whose lives have been defined by what happened over 100 years ago.

The documentary takes the audience from the streets of Turkey, where mention of the genocide is taboo, and many citizens believe that the event never took place; to the heart of Armenia, where hundreds of thousands of citizens have gathered to honor lost loved ones for the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

“It was important for us to create a documentary that tells a personal story about how this history­altering event affects us still today,” said the film’s director Naré Mkrtchyan. “Making this film I realized that the sad reality is that genocide does not end the moment the killing stops. The effects actually continue and pass from generation to generation.”

Director Naré Mkrtchyan set out to find a Turkish person with Armenian heritage for this documentary, which proved to be a difficult task. It is still illegal in Turkey to discuss what happened during this time period with Armenians, and as a result, most potential subjects were extremely hesitant to talk on­camera about their Armenian heritage. Maya, however, believed her entire life that she was Turkish, until she learned that her great grandmother, Nuriye, was actually Armenian and had been forced to hide her identity in order to survive. The documentary follows Maya as she unravels her great grandmother’s past and digs deeper into her true heritage.

More than one hundred years ago, millions of Armenian people were left homeless, starving, tortured, and massacred. April 24 commemorates the victims of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 and is known in the United States as Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. This documentary was filmed in 2015 during the 100th anniversary.